I, for one, am overjoyed that there is a National Collect Rocks Day, simply because I love rocks, I have been dragging them home for years. the variety of shapes and colors that can be found in common sandstone, are amazing, and then there are fossils, which also should day a day of their own.
the following is what i found on the National Collect Rocks Day site.
September 16th
Collect Rocks Day is a day to enjoy and add to your rock collection. Ahhhhh, to be a kid again, and have a rock collection. Well, we have good news for you. No one ever said you had to give up your rock collection when you became an adult. We hope you always keep and cherish your invaluable rock collection. Kids collect rocks because it is a fun thing to do. They even trade rocks among other rock collectors. There are no books on what rocks to collect, or how much each rock is valued at. Rather, rocks are selected for a collection based upon a wide range of attributes. A lot of it is individual appeal. The rock could be big or small, a particular color or range of colors. smooth or rough, or display a unique characteristic. When it comes to rock collecting, beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder (or rock holder in this case). Ice Cream Flavor of the Day: Rocky Road Baby Names for Today: Rock, Rocky, Stone, and if its a girl.... Pebbles! Have a happy Collect Rocks Day!
Origin of Collect Rocks Day:
We found no factual information about this special day. Kids young and old have been collecting rocks for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is likely that someday the origin of this special day will be found written upon stone tablets, or on the rock wall inside of an ancient cave.
Rocks can be beautiful, like gemstones, or practical, like building materials. The following is the article from "Archaeology Magazine"which inspired this post.
Earliest known iron artefacts come from outer space
Researchers have shown that ancient Egyptian iron beads held at the UCL Petrie Museum were hammered from pieces of meteorites, rather than iron ore. The objects, which trace their origins to outer space, also predate the emergence of iron smelting by two millennia.
Carefully hammered into thin sheets before being rolled into tubes, the nine beads – which are over 5000 years-old – were originally strung into a necklace together with other exotic minerals such as gold and gemstones, revealing the high value of this exotic material in ancient times. The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.Professor Thilo Rehren (UCL Archaeology, Qatar), lead author of the paper, said: “The shape of the beads was obtained by smithing and rolling, most likely involving multiple cycles of hammering, and not by the traditional stone-working techniques such as carving or drilling which were used for the other beads found in the same tomb.”The team’s results show that in the fourth millennium BC metalworkers had already mastered the smithing of meteoritic iron, an iron-nickel alloy much harder and more brittle than the more commonly worked copper, developing techniques that went on to define the iron age.
As a result metalworkers had already nearly two millennia of experience of working with meteoritic iron when iron smelting was introduced in the mid-second millennium BC. This knowledge was essential for the development of iron smelting and the production of iron from iron ore, enabling iron to replace copper and bronze as the main metals used.
Excavated in 1911, in a pre-dynastic cemetery near the village of el-Gerzeh in Lower Egypt, the beads were already completely corroded when they were discovered. As a result, the team used x-ray methods to determine whether the beads were actually meteoric iron, and not magnetite, which can often be mistaken to be corroded iron due to similar properties.
By scanning the beads with beam of neutrons and gamma-rays, the team were able to reveal the unique texture and also high concentration of nickel, cobalt, phosphorous and germanium – which is only found in trace amounts in iron derived from ore – that is characteristics of meteoric iron, without having to attempt invasive analysis which could potentially damage these rare objects.
Professor Rehren said: “The really exciting outcome of this research is that we were for the first time able to demonstrate conclusively that there are typical trace elements such as cobalt and germanium present in these beads, at levels that only occur in meteoritic iron.
“We are also excited to be able to see the internal structure of the beads, revealing how they were rolled and hammered into form. This is very different technology from the usual stone bead drilling, and shows quite an advanced understanding of how the metal smiths worked this rather difficult material.”Header Image : Meteoric iron beads along with other exotic minerals found in grave 67. Credit: UCL Petrie Museum/Rob Eagle
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Celebrate with a movie, how about "Rock Monster" a 2008 SYFY channel original, the scenery is gorgeous, it was filmed near Sofia, Bulgaria. The plot ispredictabler, and that is a part of the char, crazy college kids go to Europe, something about a family legacy, tresure curse...ya know, then boy meets girl, not just any girl but nysterious girl, boy accidentaly awakens rock monster, people are annihilated, boy comes of age by annihilatimg rock monster. I enjoyed the dialog, funnier than you might think.
And just in case you get the munchies.....from Tastebook.com
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Russian Rocks Cookies
Lisa Gleed
A recipe of my grandma’s is a great ice box cookie
ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup brown sugar (press in cup)
- 1 cup butter
- 3 eggs
- 3 cups flour, more if needed
- 1 tsp soda (dissolve in water)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped nuts
- 1 cup raisins or dates
- 1 tsp vanilla
directions
Beat brown sugar and butter together until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add vanilla. Add soda, flour, and salt mixture and then fold in in raisins and nuts. Using a little flour on your hands, put on waxed paper and make a roll. Let stand over night in refrigerator. Unwrap and slice 1" or smaller pieces and put on cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes.
Source: Grandma Wadsworth
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Painting on rocks, I know it has been around for a very, very, very long time, but it is easy and inexpensive. Martha Stewart, by expert of choice on how a holiday shoyld be celebrated, offer instructions on Painting rocks.
`~~http://www.marthastewart.com/274462/rock-crafts/@center/276975/marthas-crafts-kids#_
My plans for tomorrow include getting my outdoor rock collection ready for winter. And may-be finding a new member for the group.
